על חיי משה, ספר א ל״אOn the Life of Moses, Book I 31
א׳
1[170] At this strange, unexpected sight, they were panic-stricken. They were not ready to defend themselves, for lack of the necessary weapons, for their expedition was not for war but for colonization. They could not fly, for the sea was behind them, the enemy in front, and on either side the depths of the trackless desert. So, in the bitterness of their hearts, broken down by the greatness of their misfortune, they acted as men often act in such troubles, and began to accuse their ruler.
ב׳
2[171] “Was it because there were no tombs in Egypt where our dead bodies could be laid that you brought us out to kill and bury us here? Is not any slavery a lighter ill than death? You enticed this multitude with the hope of liberty, and then have saddled it with the greater danger which threatens its life.
ג׳
3[172] Did you not know our unarmedness, and the bitterness and savage temper of the Egyptians? Do you not see how great are our troubles, how impossible to escape? What must we do? Can we fight unarmed against the armed? Can we fly, surrounded as in a net by merciless enemies, pathless deserts, seas impassable to ships, or, if indeed they are passable, what supply of boats have we to enable us to cross?”
ד׳
4[173] Moses, when he heard these words, pardoned them, but remembered the divine messages, and, using his mind and speech simultaneously for different purposes, with the former silently interceded with God to save them from their desperate afflictions, with the latter encouraged and comforted the loud-voiced malcontents. “Do not lose heart,” he said, “God’s way of defence is not as that of men.
ה׳
5[174] Why are you quick to trust in the specious and plausible and that only? When God gives help He needs no armament. It is His special property to find a way where no way is. What is impossible to all created being is possible to Him only, ready to His hand.” Thus he discoursed, still calm and composed;
ו׳
6[175] but, after a little, he became possessed, and, filled with the spirit which was wont to visit him, uttered these oracular words of prophecy: “The host which you see armed to the teeth you shall see no more arrayed against you. It shall all fall in utter ruin and disappear in the depths, so that no remnant may be seen above the earth. And this shall be at no distant time, but in the coming night.”